While no lives were lost, a workplace explosion last summer in Rhode Island could have led to much worse results.
On Aug. 20, 2013, a combustible wood dust explosion and fire occurred at Inferno Wood Pellet Inc. in East Providence, injuring a worker and partially demolishing the building. The ignition of wood dust in the plant’s production room migrated to a retention bin, resulting in an explosion that spread through the building.
No One Was Killed, But Real Potential For Death and Serious Injury
“While no one was killed, the potential for death and serious injury was real, present and preventable. The lack of safeguards allowed the initial fire and explosion to occur and spread in a chain reaction to other equipment and through the plant,” said Patrick Griffin, OSHA’s area director for Rhode Island. “If this employer had adhered to applicable OSHA and National Fire Protection Association standards, that would have helped prevent the fire and explosion from occurring and spreading.”
An investigation by the Providence Area Office of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that employees at the plant were exposed to wood dust explosions, deflagrations, or rapid combustion, and other fire hazards due to inadequate or absent preventive and protective measures in the wood pellet processing system and its equipment.
Specifically, OSHA found that the retention bin lacked spark detection, explosion suppression, fire/explosion isolation and explosion venting devices; conveyor systems carrying combustible wood products lacked spark detection, fire suppression and/or fire isolation devices; dust collection systems and dust segregation barriers were not maintained to minimize fire sources; and an opening in the fire wall between the plant’s production room and chip room allowed a fireball to enter the chip room and spread the fire.
Fire Hazards Identified
OSHA identified additional fire hazards at the 275 Ferris Ave. plant, such as the accumulation of combustible wood dust on various locations and surfaces within the plant, an incomplete and inadequate fire prevention plan and lack of dust-tight electrical equipment where combustible wood dust accumulated.
Other hazards included an incomplete respiratory protection program; lack of noise monitoring; inadequate chemical hazard communication and training; excess amounts of liquefied petroleum gas stored in the building; an untrained forklift operator; and lack of procedures and training to ensure that all equipment was properly de-energized to prevent unintended activation.
Because of these and other hazards, OSHA has cited Inferno for 11 serious violations of workplace safety standards and has proposed $43,400 in fines. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.
“Combustible wood dust is a byproduct of the manufacturing process, and it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that proper and effective safeguards are in place and in use at all times, so that incidents like this fire and explosion do not occur,” said Griffin.
Inferno was provided with 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, meet informally with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
Author Kori Shafer-Stack, Editor, Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. is an expert in post-injury response procedures and part of the Amaxx team helping companies reduce their workers compensation costs by 20% to 50%. www.reduceyourworkerscomp.com. Contact: kstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.
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